The Grants Pass High School SkillsUSA students completed their state competitions April 17-18 in Portland. SkillsUSA is a United States career and technical student organization serving more than 320,000 high school and college students and professional members enrolled in training programs in technical, skilled, and service occupations.  Before the competition, students took tours of two manufacturing companies.  Thank you to Pioneer Pump for allowing us to tour their facility and Mighty Mite for their hospitality in showing us their manufacturing process.  Both businesses are located in Canby, Oregon.  Students were very impressed at the manufacturing process and the job opportunities that await many of them after high school.  Our students then went on to compete against hundreds of other students from around the state in Welding and Video Productions.  Our Welding Fabrication Team took the gold and are heading to the national competition in June along with our Video Production Team who took the gold in two events.  Congratulations to Jared Hood, Jordan Epple and Michael Burris for their success in Team Welding Fabrication and to Mr. Leair, our welding instructor for all of his hard work preparing the team.  Michael Jaroslow and Tannon Rounsaville took 1^st in Digital Cinema Production and Television Production.  This is the third straight year that Michael has won the gold.  Tannon has won the gold 2 of the past 3 years.   In addition to our gold medal winners, we also had several other students place in events.  Michael and Tannon took 4^th place in Pin-Design and T-shirt Design respectively.  Jared Hood took 4^th in Welding TIG and Alyssa Pio performed outstandingly in her first appearance in the state welding competition.  She took 4^th in the Welding Sculpture event and 4^th place in Arc Welding.  Alyssa was the only female to place in Welding.  Next up, the gold medal winners prepare for the national competition in Louisville, Kentucky in June.